The Cave Lion (Panthera spelaea and Panthera fossilis)

[GrizzlyClaws]

(11-16-2017, 05:02 AM)tigerluver Wrote: @Polar , no one really knows for sure when the African lion got its mane. The best way to do that would be to figure out what gene is responsible for the mane then see how old that mutation is. I've not yet to see any paper on that as that is quite a difficult and possibly expensive feat. This is also the first time an African lion fossil how show'd something very large. While P. shawi has been there, most scientists don't know of its existence and if they do, most never paid attention to its size as it's just a fragment of a humerus.

Since both southern/northern branch share the same mutation, so this mutation definitely happened prior the divergence of the southern/northern branch which occurred around 110 kya.

Now the giant prehistoric African lion fossils dated back to 196 kya, so the question about the mane status for the prehistoric African lions has definitely become an intriguing one. So it could be either contemporary to the giant African lions or occurred right after the size recession of the population. Reply